Training Log Archive: Wyatt

Easy long run. It was cold, I was on 2 Excedrin & 1 Mt. Dew. Somewhat nauseated, and mild+ headache all day after... Survived w/o loss of productivity (so far.)

C • New Zealand Champs 2

2x10 minute surges

R-IT threatened to pinch hard a few times, but was fine. Hence the increase in clock squats.

70 crunches, 20 1-leg pushups, 100e ankles, 40e clock squats

Valley forrge loop. Trails, frozen, with an inch of snow. Nose/throat still not fully recovered. Should sleep...

18 1-leg pushups, 60 crunches, 50e clock squats, 100e ankle rotations

Score O', Hibernia.
Clem, All, 30:51
Wyatt, All, 31:51
Vadim, All, 33:??

Of the 4 or so reasonable routes, I took one, Clem made a slight (reasonable) variation on one of them - which resulted in him getting one more control early before starting a loop. That loop had him chasing after a small train of folks, and he could see Karl (who was esp. fast today) and me out in front as targets to gain on. By about halfway around, he'd caught us. Running on trails, I had slight edge. In the forest we were fairly even, but he was picking better (generally more direct, or a little less crap) lines through the forest to gain a few seconds here & there. As we neared the end, we punched, yet again within a second or two, then he turned to the go control with me having to go fetch the one control he'd gotten at the beginning. Argggh. Not a bad result, but I want more! :)

A bunch of briar/whippy branches to push through, over often stony and occasionally marshy forest. Legs torn a bit from the briar and feet a little sore.

Short warmup, and some cool-down control pickup.

1yr Volume is 227.7, 147th place. Up 10hr, and 7 places since 1/9.
29hr in 28 days in 2007 - 1hr ahead of minimum, 3hr behind plan.

Target was 50 minutes, but throat was a little raw...

Darn cold today. My face kinda froze. I wonder if feet ran in shorts...

Probably the last day of relative rest for the cold. Tomorrow I should be back on plan with a 50-minute easy run, then O' racing on Sunday (but will need to plan something so this hits 100 minutes total.)

16 1-leg pushups, 40 situps, 40e clock squats, 100e ankle rotations, shortly after running

60 crunches, 16 1-leg pushups. Mid-afternoon

Painted some roads near the kids' school. Cold. Flurries.

Decided not to let a mild sore throat break my run-every-day-this-year streak. Yet. A grass loop close by, then painted a few more streets to stave off boredom.

Tempo run for today. Had a really hard time pushing the HR up to the target ~170+. Thought it was just because I was tired from the Sunday race. But then I got a sore throat by evening, so I think I was coming down with something too. R-IT threatened to get sore a bit in the middle of this run - need to do more clock squats for that.

Noticed this was 1:44 faster than 3 weeks ago, although I was apparently having motivation issues then too, with an AHR of only 159, plus I forgot ankle tape...

Parked at visitor-center to force a decent warm up/down.

Long - Splits

VF Park trails, slow at start. A dusting of snow.

HHT getting a bit sore, so got off my chair & did 30 situps & 13 pushups

Event: Chilly Cheeks, 7 mile trail run
 

Over 400 people had gathered to run the inaugural Chilly Cheeks 7 mile trail run in Reading, PA. Ahead of this race I was hoping for a top 5% finish - about top 20, as a reasonable goal. I've finished 8th of 500 & 25th of 600 in similar races, but I wasn't coming off a year injured back then.

It was in the mid-20's and overcast, but with very little wind. After a breakfast of 1 packet of oatmeal, 2 servings of cream-of-wheat, some Diet Coke and water, I taped my ankles & got in the car. An hour later, I pulled in with 30 minutes to go, and was directed to the overflow parking lot.

With already taped ankles & warmup layers on, I jogged to the building where registration was taking place, and was suprised to see a few DVOAers there. My email out to DVOAers only got one response - from Sandy Ahlswede saying she wouldn't be there. And then she (and family) were the only ones there. Greg was there, but wasn't running to to hip flexor issues. It's too bad because based on a recent head to head Sprint race, I think he could've done much better than me in this race.

A little more warmup took me past Mt. Mud, a >50% grade earthbank with about 15m climb just 100m before the end. With the ground frozen this looked rather like big sandpaper - with 2cm sharp 'grains' of rock sticking out of frozen earth.

I jogged back to the car, then back the finish where I tied my jacket to a pole then jogged the remaining 400m to the start area. Happy to see Greg there, because I decided to shed a layer. One thin DVOA long-sleeve top would be enough (plus thin spandex, gloves & and ear-band.) Felt surprisingly nervous in the warmup area, but warm.

After announcments and an on-the-mark set go, we were off down a paved, then dirt road. I was probably about 30th at the 300m mark, where we turned off the trail to 'bushwhack' (white forest) up to a field. Pulled up about 10-15 places in that forested sidehill (including the top 3 women at that point), and a few more on a slight downhill. Couldn't quite count, but thought I was about 15th at that point. Passed one more on a downhill road, and 1 more on a windy trail. As we started cruising along a flat wide road (below the Pagoda), I realized I could be turning my legs over a little harder (HR was still under 170), and in doing so I passed one more guy just as we crossed the mile mark at about 7:45 - about 12th by my guess. Saw two more guys ahead, and my burst of speed on the flat road continued to pass one guy who was clearly fading. 11th.

About 50m ahead, #10 turned off the main trail and dropped out of sight to the left. On getting there I see it's down a narrow trail with 1 foot of leaves covering rocks. Rough, but that's good - with O' shoes, taped ankles and years of O' behind me, I've got to be able to do this better than anyone here. The zag down ends up on a rocky, but flat road, and continues to do zigs and zags up and down, and occasionally some 'trail' sections that appear to be nothing more than streamers through the forest. And I'm not closing the gap on #10.

For those who've been to Mt. Penn, most of this course was on the west side of Mt. Penn. The rocky side of a rocky area. And I'm losing ground to yellow shirted #10 and a few others far ahead with them. Who are these people?

At the water stop at ~2.5 miles, I can see there is about a 30-second gap to a group of about 4 runners ahead, and a 15-second gap to an endless line of runners behind - I'm by myself between two packs. One cup of water and I'm off, now zig-zagging uphill.

The uphill makes it look like I'm closer to the pack of 4 runners ahead, but yellow shirted #10 stays far away. At about 3.5 miles, in a particularly steep climb, they seem within reach. But then cresting that for a diagonal downhill, there's no one in sight. I hammer along this narrow sidehill trail, trying to catch up, and trying to push while staying upright - finally catching glimpses of them up ahead.

A few zags later, and we're at the 4.5 mile water stop. Two (~8oz) cups here, having difficultly with the second shot. It helps though, because I can finally get rid of some really sticky/dry saliva.

The trail flattens out a bit as we run back along the sidehill. But there's only an occasional sign of the 4-pack I'm hunting. The 4.5 mile water stop turns out to be a near-U-turn, and I'm running back on a parallel trail, that, 2 minute laters, gets close to the out-bound runners. They're about 5-meters apart. And I've got over 100m still between me & my target #10 place. A little bit of swearing about the bastard with my #10 spot helps me push along this stretch of the trail, but with no avail, they're still far ahead. Then wait, they're closer - oh, the trail hairpins left up ahead going diagonally up rather steep. They're closer on this climb than on the flat, but still far enough away that I can't see them the whole time.

But wait. As they turn back right onto a flattish trail, I see a new #10. A red-white shirt guy has dropped back - maybe he's fading on the uphills! We've got a new target and one that looks passable!

After this steep uphill is another sidehill segement that looks like someone took a leaf blower along a completely random segment of steep rocky sidehill. There's nothing flat to put your feet on. After 5 mintues of this, I've gained zero ground on the non-orienteering crowd ahead of me. So much for my off-trail skills.

But around the next bend is another uphill, and I can see all 4 of them walking. Here's my chance. Turning into the hill, I keep running. No walking for me if I'm going to catch this pack. 50m climb over 300m. Getting steeper by the end. Running is working. Burning quads, but with just a mile to go, it's worth it. I'm gaining ground. Esp. on the Red/Blue guy who's fallen even further behind the other 3. But the hill is just too steep by the end for me to keep running - 25m up in the last 100m forces me to a walk - but I'm digging in for it to be a faster walk than the guy ahead. My heart-rate hits a race-max 183 at the top of this, and I succeed in cresting the wall at the top of this hill just 10m behind red/blue guy.

The other 3 are about 50m ahead in a tight pack down the ~100m road segment here. I hold right onto the red/blue guy on the downhill road. Then we enter the forest, and continue dropping down on a rocky, roling trail with crazy 2-5 ft. bike jumps(?) to drop off of. And the red-blue guy is getting away. I try to wipe sweat out of my eyes, but it's kind of a semi-frozen film and I just tear up a bit. When I finally see again, I've lost even more ground - now ~25m behind red-blue guy in this zig-zag decent. But wait, he's passing the Yellow guy. I can't catch Red/Blue, but I'm gaining ground on the Yellow guy on this rugged downhill. He seems to be sprinting out of every turn, but I'm still gaining.

As we get to the parking lot that ends this rugged section, I'm 2 steps behind. As we run across the parking lot, then mowed grass, I pull out to pass.

But he won't have it. We've only got 400m to go, and, with the pavement he likes, he's kicking. I'm just trying to hang onto the back. If I can only do that, I've got a chance to pass him up Mt. Mud. But he's too strong, and I start to drop. "Watch out for the ice" calls a volunteer at a turn. He runs around. I skirt between a bush and the ice-slick on the inside of the corner, metal O' spikes ready - but there's a few inches of ice free pavement so I lose no speed. Back on him 5m. Another 100m down a road, and I've got to let go by the end again. He's too fast.

But wait, there's 100m to go before Mt. Mud. I've got to get my gloves back on (removed due to heat at ~ mile 4). I can't climb that frozen earthbank with barehands if I want to keep the skin on them. Pulling my gloves on I'm not even looking for trail signs, just the heels of Yellow-guy. He's pulling away, as I can't watch my footing well since I'm putting on gloves. But we're off trail now as we approach the base of Mt. Mud, and I can catch back up while he searches for footing, and I just dog him. At the base of frozen Mt. Mud (15m up in <30m horizontal) he gets the best line. But I've got O' shoes, and massive determination to out-climb him. A crowd of 30 people is leaning out over the edge to see us climb, screaming. Halfway up, I've got him, but not by much. His head is still near my feet as I scramble over the edge. On wobbly legs, I push on though the last 100m, quite aware that he can run flats well - and it's enough! 10th place by less than 10 steps, after nearly an hour of racing.

Awesome to place that high, and to be able to slowly but surely climb place by place for almost the entire race. Winners were around 51. Maybe next year... :)

C • Great Race! 8

Painting roads (trying to efficiently cover as many streets as possible) near home.

If you live in a grid network neighborhood, with, say, 10 streets per mile (e.g. urban), then there are over 60 miles of streets within 1 mile of your house? Lots of running possibilities with street painting...

Hill intervals, Cannon sign to top of Mt. Joy. Parking lot edge still perceptible, but there were tractors actively trying to erase all traces of that road. Not sure how I'll find the 'end' of the run then. 10m beyond the last tree won't be a very distinct end point. I guess I have a lot of GPS end-points now.... 3:41, 3:44, 3:38, 3:35 (Angelica bailed at 3x, so I aimed for 3:30 as a target that if I hit I could quit at 4x instead of 8x (which had already become 6x)), 4:01 (slacked bad), 3:54 (pushed harder, I thought - maybe I was actually tired.)

It's going to be hard to run hill intervals 'with' Angelica when she plans to only run 3, and me 8.. I'd almost rather run 8 alone, so her bailing early isn't so demorizing... Maybe I just need to read O-sport some more.

Trails, mostly

VF-Joy Cannon Sign to Hilltop Lot - Splits

Before this run, after blowing yesterdays, I have 3 days level before the trail race. Which isn't really enough to get in two quality workouts (a hill intervals & an 8x400m were on plan.) Angelica offered to run hills with me on Friday, so I just did loops with Angelica, Jackie & Tom. I took them on some sketchy trails, and even a bit of clean white forest. They seemed to really like the off trail bit, but then Tom clipped his shin on a guy wire holding up a pine tree and the excitement dimmed a bit. But then Jackie led us on a narrow (but visible) trail through a field because "don't you like this so much better" than the nearby paved trail. I have to agree, but amazed to see the conversion. :)

PHL-SAN, 11am-3:15p, SWA

Started off on the treadmill a few minutes before midnight so I'd do _something_ today, after missing the planned hill intervals (busy buying a Honda Odyssey)

Horseshoe trail @ Whitehorse pike to PA TP Valley Forge rest area (east-bound), got a 32-oz Dr.Pepper/Coke, drank that on the way back. A little straighter on the way back, but it still took 2 minutes longer thanks to the climb up Mt. Misery.

Twice past the quintuple-dog surround-sound attack zone (just west of Diamond Rock.) Carried a stick through there both ways and managed to hold them off at about 10 feet while spinning, but without having to slow to a walk... And all those folks are proud enough of their 'horseshoe trial' address to have fancy wooden address signs, yet they can't keep their dogs from chasing runners on the the dirt-road 'trail'...

Really slow start. Various muscles, incl. inside L-groin are sore from yesterday's tempo run. I guess that means I ran it reasonable well. It probably also means that wet-leaf-covered rocky hills are a tough workout on a variety of muscles...

Rerun of VF Goat II. Very wet forest - not raining, but rained all day yesterday, and still foggy... Pushed properly about 75% of the way, slacked a bit. Missed one control probably 3 meters to my side, turned around and saw it 25 meters behind... Missed a few seconds here and there at other bags too. 16 seconds behind Vadim's day-of-event run.

60 crunches...

Score-O - Splits

Vaguely following the Crow Creek from the train tracks to the turnpike, leading Vadim on a messy run. Narrow muddy trails through briar. Some step-in-the-creek crossings, a construction area with some saturated, freshly churned, shoe sucking mud... Entertaining run.

1st half with Jackie, Angelica & Tom. Then bailed early and did some secret training drills on the way back.

C • I was aware of "russian" secre... 2

The drills... some skips, some hops, some leaps, some sideways running.

10x200m hard w/200m jog between. Range was :41 to :37

w/Angelica & Jackie. Loops at VF, near Valley creek. Ran through a pretty snowstorm. Just dusted the ground but the air was quite pretty for a few minutes.

Warmup for eve. exercise

Speedplay - 10min on, 10 min off, fast portion. Full route was the 7.2 mile Bonnie's loop

Slow portion of speedplay

60 crunches, 20 pushups. (Saw barb's comment about spending more time training than APing and thought that might help balance things...)

Training volume: 154th, 217.8hrs/last-365 (for reference...)

Windy, raining, sluggish. Right calf generally sore after yesterday's run. But all-in-all not a bad day. (Still happy about yesterday's time trial as it suggests I may be able to have a decent Spring season - and if I work hard enough, I've still got a chance at WOC...)

~5-10 minute warmup
10-15 minute cooldown

Valley Forge 5 mile loop - aiming for 35. Quite surprised to hit new PR of 32:39. Vadim gave me a 1 minute head start and was tailing me hard for the last 2 miles. He finished in 31:45.

Mile splits (ala GPS)
6:38, 6:23, 6:43, 6:40, 6:13
http://www.attackpoint.org/racesplits.jsp?raceid=2...

C • BTW, nice run. It's really goo... 1

Valley Forge 5 mile loop - Splits

Supposed to be an easy run around VF park, but Vadim's 'slow' isn't as slow as mine...

L-Hamstring: Pretty good
R-Calf: Still a sore little knot, but really not getting worse
Weather: ~70-degrees - absolutely destroying the previous record for Jan. 6 - of 59 degrees..

6x800
3:08, 3:00, 3:01, 2:59, 3:00, 3:00

Thought I was really pushing the last one to try to get to, say 2:52 (to bring my average to 3:00), but ended up right on 3:00, which suggests I wore out well. Only 200m jogs (~1:10) between.

Pace could've been worse - hoping to do 2:45's within a few months (say 3) to be back to the shape I was in 13 months ago, and then down to 2:30's by WOC... Tough target (for me...)

Injury Update:
First real track intervals since hamstring injury. We'll see later how the leg does. I did feel it after the 4th interval, although not really hurting. Just saying hi... Also had a knot in lower R-calf, inside that I got while leaning over during tag with Oriana last night. This hurt, but didn't get worse during intervals.

1st half of run, alone near 5 mile loop

2nd half of run, with Jackie, me in grass while she ran her 7th-9th miles on pavement.

Put together stats on US team training in 2006. Only 5 folks managed to average >1 hr/day. (Pavlina probably did too but doesn't AP her training - maybe others are in the same boat???)

Portion of Horseshoe trail from Warwick's western edge, over to a near-approach of Rt 100. Unfortunately the long foretold* bridge over the South fork of French Creek wasn't there - just a line of big rocks that would've been crossable in lower water conditions. Today they were wet, and the nearby ground was frozen (air was ~40), and I didn't fancy a fall into that follwed by a very cold and possibly banged up run back...
*I've seen the bridge on two maps an even been told about the cool suspension bridge by some orienteer, I think. No sign of any manmade objects - just some large boulders in a line in the water that appear to be human-arranged.

Plan was 2.5 hr, but decided to do a shorter prettier run (and drive to/from) in the time available.

Too-slow Warmup, fix shoes, wish I'd brought ankle tape to do a proper tempo run.

Valley Goat 1 rerun. This should be a reasonable approx. 60 minute tempo run, in not-too-rugged terrain. But I didn't tape and generally had trouble pushing the HR high today. I felt like I was moving okay, but I should feel like it's _hard_ to move... :) My PR on this is 66, and the course record is 65, so 75 isn't terrible. Conditions were pretty good though.

Run from VF park large lot to home. A bunch on pavement in spikes. But we're down to one car...

Good news is hamstring was happier after this than in the morning.

10x (5e) 1-legged pushups - weak...
Ankle good, Hip moderate

Long - Splits

KoP north east.

Hamstring more sore than normal this evening as it was after 12/27 run. Not sure why it's getting more active recently, but it may put a damper on my return-to-proper-training plans. We'll see.

Sore enough that sitting was askew and I hit it with the pineapple again a few times on 12/27 & 1/1...